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IBM to integrate Visual Age tools into Team Connection repository

by Cath Everett

IBM plans to use its Team onnection standalone repository to integrate its Visual Age development tools over the course of next year, to try and make component-based development easier for users.

Each new release of the tools next year will be more tightly integrated with the repository, while the look-and-feel of each of the products is also expected to become more similar over time. This will enable users to move more easily between them when developing different parts of an application.

Andy Heys, IBM?s UK pre-sales technical support executive, said: ?People have more multiple roles and skills these days, and the tools they use should reflect that or at least recognise there are differences between C++ and HTML, for example. We?re trying to minimise the pain by making the tools work together, making the differences between them less, so they can flit between one and the other in a more natural way.?

Visual Age for C++ will be integrated into Team Connection during the first quarter of next year, its Java sister will follow in the second quarter, and the Smalltalk and Visual Age Generator offerings will appear by the third quarter.

IBM is likely to bundle the products in a manner similar to Microsoft's Visual Studio suite in future.

The company also plans to port the repository to platforms other than its own over the course of next year, including Windows NT, HP/UX and Solaris. Users will also be able to access the metadata store from a Windows 95 and NT client, OS/2, Unix, MVS and the AS/400.